About the work

Walter Bertelsmann may be viewed as the last of the “old Worpswede masters”, having been a pupil of Hans am Ende from 1902 to 1904. He was active throughout his life as a landscape painter in the artist colony and remained true to the character of his art over the years. He began his career as a tobacco merchant in Bremen before ultimately deciding in favour of painting. He worked alternating between the studio and the great outdoors and created works with an almost Impressionistic lightness. He was particularly interested in the representation of water, as this painting also makes clear. The section of the river extending from the Weser weir in Bremen to its mouth in the North Sea, which is also tidal, is referred to as the Lower Weser.

In this landscape format, the horizon lies considerably below the middle of the painting, whereby the representation of the sky occupies the predominant share of the painting. This horizon line is marked by a landscape arranged in an extremely reduced fashion. The white foam of the Weser waves thus corresponds so closely with the white sails of the two recognisable boats in the middle distance and the white clouds in the sky that the painting radiates an intensive coherency. Bertelsmann captures his motif from a slightly elevated position and can thus express the expanse of the flat water landscape. One almost seems to hear the rush of the waves and the wind.